23 replies to this topic

[ucantcme]

I have learned to use GMAX quite well in the past week, and I am having trouble with a few things:

First off:

Texturing - When I make a box, I put the picture on the side I want it to show up on, and it ends up showing on all faces of the box. So on the sides, top, other side, bottom. Cant figure out how to make it show on 1 face or 2 or however! Also, when I apply a texture, and I export it in FS, the figure shows up, but the picture doesnt!

OCTAGON - HOW DO I MAKE A OCTAGON IN GMAX:mad:! I am trying to make an octogon with different lengths. Any ideas?

Any help is much appreciates!

[IBtheSarge]

ucantcme, on Oct 23 2005, 10:32 PM, said:

I have learned to use GMAX quite well in the past week, and I am having trouble with a few things:

First off:

Texturing - When I make a box, I put the picture on the side I want it to show up on, and it ends up showing on all faces of the box. So on the sides, top, other side, bottom. Cant figure out how to make it show on 1 face or 2 or however! Also, when I apply a texture, and I export it in FS, the figure shows up, but the picture doesnt!

OCTAGON - HOW DO I MAKE A OCTAGON IN GMAX:mad:! I am trying to make an octogon with different lengths. Any ideas?

Any help is much appreciates!

1.  Not sure about GMAX, but some of this may help:  In FSDS2 when I apply textures, I have options of front, back, left, right, top, bottom and wrap-around.  You have to select which facing you want, then use the pointer to define the part of the texture you want to display on that facing.  If you select more than will fit on that facing, it wraps to other facings; so you have approximate the size of the facing when selecting the part of the texture you want.  Don't know if those options are presented by GMAX, but maybe something similar?

2.  Object shows up but the textures don't .... unless you are using the default FS9 textures, you need to load the texture .bmp's into the FS9 texture directory (or, if you're using FS9/AddOn Scenery/Scenery for your object .bgl, then load your texture .bmp's into FS9/AddOn Scenery/Texture directory).  Otherwise, FS9 doesn't know where to look to find the textures you're using.

Does any of that help?

[wildwobby]

for an octogon, I would make a circle with 8 sides.

[ucantcme]

wildwobby, on Oct 23 2005, 09:55 PM, said:

for an octogon, I would make a circle with 8 sides.

I don't want it circular, I want it to have different size sides


Sarge, thanks for your input, I don't see a Wrap-Around option or any of that. Also for my texture for say my BK Sign (lol) its a jpeg, do i just place it in the texture folder?

Thanks again!

[Project_City_Mike]

Hey,

I believe your problem is just that. I believe you need to use BMP files for textures and not JPEGs. Maybe that will do the trick for you.

[ucantcme]

Project_City_Mike, on Oct 23 2005, 10:43 PM, said:

Hey,

I believe your problem is just that. I believe you need to use BMP files for textures and not JPEGs. Maybe that will do the trick for you.

Thank you Project City Mike for your advise

[IBtheSarge]

ucantcme, on Oct 23 2005, 11:01 PM, said:

wildwobby, on Oct 23 2005, 09:55 PM, said:

for an octogon, I would make a circle with 8 sides.

I don't want it circular, I want it to have different size sides


Sarge, thanks for your input, I don't see a Wrap-Around option or any of that. Also for my texture for say my BK Sign (lol) its a jpeg, do i just place it in the texture folder?

Thanks again!

Not sure about how GMAX handles textures; generally, textures for FS9 have to be BMP files.  Just open the JPG in your graphics program then "save as" a Windows bitmap file.  You may have to resize it as there is a size limitation to bmp's used for textures.  You may even need to convert it to dxt format.

[ucantcme]

sarge, on Oct 24 2005, 06:06 PM, said:

ucantcme, on Oct 23 2005, 11:01 PM, said:

wildwobby, on Oct 23 2005, 09:55 PM, said:

for an octogon, I would make a circle with 8 sides.

I don't want it circular, I want it to have different size sides


Sarge, thanks for your input, I don't see a Wrap-Around option or any of that. Also for my texture for say my BK Sign (lol) its a jpeg, do i just place it in the texture folder?

Thanks again!

Not sure about how GMAX handles textures; generally, textures for FS9 have to be BMP files.  Just open the JPG in your graphics program then "save as" a Windows bitmap file.  You may have to resize it as there is a size limitation to bmp's used for textures.  You may even need to convert it to dxt format.

Thank you, will try that after I study for my Chemistry Quiz tomorrow

[IBtheSarge]

ucantcme, on Oct 24 2005, 08:45 PM, said:

Thank you, will try that after I study for my Chemistry Quiz tomorrow

No problem.

(Chemistry Hint #21,638.101 -- Never, NEVER put marble chips in Aqua Regia!!!!  That is ONLY permissible inside the gas chamber at a state prison.  Did that in high school chemistry lab in 1964; suspended for a week, but our chemistry prof gave us all B's on the lab work.  Would have been A's, but we didn't warn everyone to put on gas masks  )

[ucantcme]

sarge, on Oct 24 2005, 08:47 PM, said:

ucantcme, on Oct 24 2005, 08:45 PM, said:

Thank you, will try that after I study for my Chemistry Quiz tomorrow

No problem.

(Chemistry Hint #21,638.101 -- Never, NEVER put marble chips in Aqua Regia!!!!  That is ONLY permissible inside the gas chamber at a state prison.  Did that in high school chemistry lab in 1964; suspended for a week, but our chemistry prof gave us all B's on the lab work.  Would have been A's, but we didn't warn everyone to put on gas masks  )

Thanks for the heads up ...

We actually blew up Calcium about a year ago...that is one awesome explosion.. I wanna blow up Cesium so badly

[IBtheSarge]

ucantcme, on Oct 25 2005, 02:51 PM, said:

We actually blew up Calcium about a year ago...that is one awesome explosion.. I wanna blow up Cesium so badly

I know how you feel .... I so wanted to detonate uranium, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your individual perspective), the Air Force gave me the job of making sure they wouldn't detonate until the President ordered them detonated.

Good luck on the chem exam, and post the results of your GMAX attempts.

[ucantcme]

sarge, on Oct 25 2005, 08:14 PM, said:

ucantcme, on Oct 25 2005, 02:51 PM, said:

We actually blew up Calcium about a year ago...that is one awesome explosion.. I wanna blow up Cesium so badly

I know how you feel .... I so wanted to detonate uranium, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your individual perspective), the Air Force gave me the job of making sure they wouldn't detonate until the President ordered them detonated.

Good luck on the chem exam, and post the results of your GMAX attempts.

I did alright on my Quiz.....I studied all the ones that werent on the quiz...but anyways


I am not sure why my texture isnt showing up! I made a folder inside Addon Scenery made a scenery and texture folder put the texture in the texture folder and put the BGL in the scenery folder...The object is in the game, but no texture! I have tried NUMEROUS times now and I am getting frustrated...all apart of the game..I know . Is there somewhere in the XML document that points to the texture or something? It shows in GMAX the box and the bmp image but not in FS...Help

Thanks everyone

[TechnicolorYawn]

Make sure you convert the .bmp files to DXT bmp files using DXTbmp before you put them in the texture folder, or they won't show in the game. Also remember that textures for FS need to be square, and powers of 2 wide (so 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024 etc).

Edited by TechnicolorYawn, 26 October 2005 - 01:46 AM.

[IBtheSarge]

Yeah; what TCY said.

Generally, Windows bitmaps are saved as 24-bit and that's just too large for FS to handle (for some reason).  Converting them from 24-bit to 8-bit doesn't seem to work, as there's invariably a color-shift in the process and the 8-bit renders as something completely different than what you did.

The freeware program dxtBMP allows you to import just about any kind of graphic and then convert it to DXT1 or DXT3 format, or even convert that 24-bit BMP to an extended BMP.  (Exteded bitmap should be last resort, though.)

Once you've got the texture file into a format FS9 can use:

{FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx (should be empty)
{FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx/Scenery (AFCAD file, scenery BGL files)
{FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx/Texture (only the .bmp texture files you made)

Don't forget to add {FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx into the scenery library at start-up.  You'll have to add it, then completely exit FS9 and restart it for the addition to take effect.

A lot of this you've probably already done; but sometimes repeating the process can help .... I don't know how many times I've added a scenery and left out one little step, or misspelled a directory name, and then spent hours trying to figure out why it wasn't showing up in the simulation.  

[ucantcme]

sarge, on Oct 26 2005, 08:31 AM, said:

Yeah; what TCY said.

Generally, Windows bitmaps are saved as 24-bit and that's just too large for FS to handle (for some reason).  Converting them from 24-bit to 8-bit doesn't seem to work, as there's invariably a color-shift in the process and the 8-bit renders as something completely different than what you did.

The freeware program dxtBMP allows you to import just about any kind of graphic and then convert it to DXT1 or DXT3 format, or even convert that 24-bit BMP to an extended BMP.  (Exteded bitmap should be last resort, though.)

Once you've got the texture file into a format FS9 can use:

{FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx (should be empty)
{FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx/Scenery (AFCAD file, scenery BGL files)
{FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx/Texture (only the .bmp texture files you made)

Don't forget to add {FS9}/AddOn Scenery/xxxx into the scenery library at start-up.  You'll have to add it, then completely exit FS9 and restart it for the addition to take effect.

A lot of this you've probably already done; but sometimes repeating the process can help .... I don't know how many times I've added a scenery and left out one little step, or misspelled a directory name, and then spent hours trying to figure out why it wasn't showing up in the simulation.  

Thank you very much TCY and Sarge....Will be trying this in about an hour after I finish my interview with Boss Tweed (History Paper)

[IBtheSarge]

ucantcme, on Oct 26 2005, 02:21 PM, said:

Thank you very much TCY and Sarge....Will be trying this in about an hour after I finish my interview with Boss Tweed (History Paper)

Was that the Tammany Hall scandal? or am I thinking of something else?

[ucantcme]

sarge, on Oct 26 2005, 01:25 PM, said:

ucantcme, on Oct 26 2005, 02:21 PM, said:

Thank you very much TCY and Sarge....Will be trying this in about an hour after I finish my interview with Boss Tweed (History Paper)

Was that the Tammany Hall scandal? or am I thinking of something else?

Thats it!!!         


Gilded Age is our topic in History

[ucantcme]

Alright guys...FINALLY I got the texture to show up....After about 150,000 attempts!

Now, I need to figure out how to put the texture on 2 sides instead of EVERY SIDE.....Cant seem to find the feature.

PLUS I need windows...

[PiP]

i see what you are doing wrong.

you can't have a texture for each square. you have 1 image file for them all and you have to tell GMAX which part of the texture each square (polygon) should use.

[PiP]

here we go

this download will be interesting reading and has alot of usefull tools. It explains texturing in good detail.

you will also find the tool for creating the MIP-MAPs for textures. saves alot of FPS. (called imagetool.exe)

I also highly recomend all the "SDK"s (software developer kits) on that page, after all they were made for you.

Edited by PiP, 26 October 2005 - 08:47 PM.